Usually, Racism Gets Little Notice

May 06, 2014|Letter to the editor

The issue of racism has flared up again with the hateful comments made about African Americans by the owner of the Los Angeles Clippers basketball team. What is more shameful is how corporations, the media and the public ignore pernicious racism and persistent discrimination in American society until it becomes as shocking as the comments attributed to Donald Sterling.

Consider the fact that the owner of the Washington Redskins, Dan Snyder, has refused to consider changing the racist name of his team. Despite efforts over the years by many Indian tribes, the media, institutions and fans seem not to have a problem with it. It is so easy to insult a people who have been almost driven to extinction.

And greed trumps everything, because the very same athletes who have been justifiably angered by Sterling's recent comments ignored them all along despite his appalling track record as a racist slumlord.